PUBLISHED 09/12/2007
In addition to his 2:14:29 at Birmingham 03, Shay has run in the 2:14s three other times, hitting his PR (2:14:08) in the 2004 NYC Marathon. His most surprising 2:14 was probably the third-place 2:14:58 he ran last October at Twin Cities. The year up to that point had been pretty much a disaster, with sports scientists at the USOC training camp in Chula Vista CA eventually telling him that he was suffering from Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome, aka severe total-body fatigue. Shay took it easy for a month, began a modest training buildup in August, and then felt great during the Oct. 1 marathon. "That was quite a shock--an eye opener," he says now. "It told me that maybe I used to push too hard."
Shay was far back in the super-fast Houston Half Marathon in January of this year (64:23), but a couple of months later ran a track PR for 10,000 meters (28:03.44) in the Peyton Jordan Invitational. At Falmouth in early August, he also ran a personal best on the course, improving a previous mark by 20 seconds. Now all roads lead to Central Park.
"I'm going to stick with my plan," he says. "The goal is to stay healthy and get to the Trials healthy. It does you no good to train really hard and get really fit, but then not to be healthy on the day of the race. I think I've learned my lesson."
